I haven't had a book hangover like this in a while

[mahogany]

A few days ago, I randomly picked up a book on a friend's desk, and said "What are you reading?" He shrugged and said, I dunno. Someone gave it to me for Christmas but I can't get into it. You can have it."

It wasn't the kind of book I would ordinarily even glance at twice, but I took it home with me for the sheer randomness of it. That was Saturday. 40 pages into it, I put the sequels on hold at the library because I knew I would be wanting to read then ASAP. There was a request queue. By Sunday, I had finished it, and couldn't wait for my turn to come up at the library, so I ran out to Chapters and bought the sequel. My problem is that I finished the sequel last night, and my turn for the third book is at least two weeks away, and the closest book store doesn't have any in stock, and it couple of hours it will be bedtime for the kids, which means I'll have time for myself, and no book to read.

I'm actually desperate enough to borrow my son's eReader, and download the book, which says a lot because I don't enjoy the eReading experience nearly as much as I love the curling up under the covers with an actual book. Also, I tend to flip back and forth between chapters in books, which makes a paper book much better. Ah well, desperate times and all that.

These books took me by surprise. Besides being a genre that I don't normally choose (mystery), they're trashy (which, I actually don't mind, but it's distracting and not fulfilling in the same way good literature is fulfilling), way too wordy and expository, and really dark and depressing in some ways, but I just can't put them down. I love the heroine. But on the other hand, when the third one is finished, that's it. It's back to regular life. I HATE it when good books end. It makes me so sad, that I have to leave that exciting other world. I can re-read the books and re-xperience them, but it doesn't compare to the excitement of that very first reading.

Oh, the books are the Millenium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Girl Who Played with Fire
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest

Apparently, he was 3/4 finished a fourth book, and outlined the fifth and sixth, but died of a heart attack before he could even finish the fourth. *cries*

Comments

Strong start, disappointing finish

[new-iconoclast.livejournal.com]

I didn't think they were too trashy, or at least I chalked up the slightly-trashy feel to quirks of the Swedish-to-English translation. I did enjoy the first one a lot - couldn't put it down. The second I thought was very good. The third one really disappointed me - not only did it have a minimum of Salander, with whom as someone with an autism spectrum disorder I can identify, but unless you both know something about and care about the last 40 years of Swedish politics (and I don't), it was pretty esoteric. About all I could say is that I remembered who Olof Palme was and that he had been assassinated.

OTOH, the third book did make me feel better about the fact that it looks like 4, 5, and 6 won't happen (mostly due to conflicts between the author's life partner and his family; he died intestate).

And I got a Kindle from my in-laws for Christmas. I like it for solitaire, crossword puzzles, and a bunch of free public-domain books, but I can't see it ever replacing real books for me.

Re: Strong start, disappointing finish

[mahogany.livejournal.com]

The third was less-than-satisfying, I admit, but I think that's because the author had a serious axe to grind with certain government policies. I think the fourth book would have been good if he had completed it. It would have to have a brand new story line and we would see more of Salander in the fourth.

We needed to slog through the third to neatly wrap up Salander's legal troubles, and resolve her refusal to speak to Blomkvist. Now that the character's guardianship was removed, and she was a regular citizen, I think the author might have planned for a more stable partnership between Blomkvist and Salander in which they both figure prominently. Also, I was thinking that Camilla Salander might emerge as a figure in future stories.

Eh. But we'll never know.